About 70 years ago, Villa Ortensia was a great countryside that reached the sea, there were no roads, no houses, only trees, shrubs and rocks. But looking carefully, hidden among the undergrowth, just below our present beautiful garden my grandfather found some caves of lava flow that descended from the mountains to the sea. At the time of World War II Lieutenant Nociforo, an Italian army officer (my grandfather), made a choice, he decided to exploit the caves under his land to hide Jews and fleeing partisans.

After the war the caves were discovered, secured and closed by the competent authorities, so it was possible in the 1970s to build the villas that even today form the Ortensia complex, including our B&B.

Villa Ortensia was born from the  idea of ​​wanting to work in the family. In 2006, when there were no more than 3 B&Bs in Aci Castello, we decided to embark on this new adventure. Turn our home into a B&B. My mother, captain of the ship, my brother manual arm and helper for all the structural adjustment works and me as a collaborator and manager of advertising and reservations and my father as an architect and landscape architect of the large garden. This is how the first 3 rooms of Villa Ortensia were born.

The building was renovated for the first time in 2006 with the first works to transform the house into a B&B, in 2009 some bathrooms were renovated, in 2012 the façade of the Villa was redone, in 2015, all the fixtures were changed.

In 2016 there was the first major breakthrough, my parents decided to go and live in the mountains, in a beautiful medieval village called Montalbano Elicona. Therefore as the heir to the throne, the total management of the B&B has passed to me, with the great help of my husband.

So here is the new family that runs Villa Ortensia: Erminia, Alfio and the faithful Brando.

With my husband we decided to give the rooms a modernization, we furnished the rooms with a new taste, we changed the floor, modernized the bathrooms and repainted the interior doors, putting safer locks.

In 2017 Villa Ortensia has grown, has become a landlord, with 6 rooms. Other renovations have been made to adapt the B&B to landlords, we have created a bathroom for each room, bought the new kitchen, furnished the new salon, but after so many sacrifices, so much money, so much sweat, we are more beautiful than before ready for new adventures.

2018 was a year of unexpected surprises, the family is expanding and in January 2019 little Mario will arrive and Villa Ortensia will shine with a new light, new laughter and occasional shrieks.

But we never want to stop, we have new projects in the pipeline for next year: a great beautiful novelty, a pool in the garden. So I’ll keep you updated, see you soon.